Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spoke early this morning in Cherokee, Iowa. After his "Ask Mitt Anything" event, he answered a few questions from reporters.
Henderson: "In your remarks, you talked about Osama bin Laden being delusional. Could you expand on that?"
Romney: "Oh, I think his comments as a radical jihadist and the idea of people converting to Islam under the threat of coersion — these kinds of principles are not in line with, if you will, rational thought, in my view. I think the whole radical jihadist movement is extraordinarily misguided and evil and is a form of delusion, but I believe that the people of the world recognize that. I think when he makes tapes like this it hurts his effort. It doesn’t help it and I was in some respects thankful that he reminded the people of the world what the face of evil looks like, that his message of conversion through coersion — striking at the foundations of civilization through terror, that that message needs to be heard from time to time because there is this global effort of people who wish to bring down all civilization and destroy life and categorize people based on their faith and this is something which is a very frightening but very real threat."
Later, as Romney was walking away, I asked him where he had seen the video. He said he had seen it on the television in his hotel room (he overnighted in Cherokee). I mistakenly referenced the video as the "Obama" video, however, which was pointed out to me by one of Romney’s staff as the group walked away. Oops. Laughter from the small cluster of reporters drew Romney to turn back around and add, "When you were asking it, I thought what Obama tape?" More laughter. I was urged to blog about my error by campaign staff (you know who you are, Tim Albrecht). There. I have done it
UPDATED: Romney’s "Ask Mitt Anything" event in Cherokee is blogged below.
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